Run, run run as fast as you can, UK.

THE EU is to launch a £3 BILLION defence research and development programme with the ultimate aim of merging the continent's militaries into one gargantuan Euro army, Express.co.uk can exclusively reveal today.

Brussels bureaucrats are railroading through contentious plans to vastly expand the European Union’s military scope which could ultimately end with the British army being subsumed into a vast continental force.

The UK military could also be forced to share highly sensitive weapons technology - which we have spent millions of pounds of taxpayers' money developing - with the rest of Europe under an agreement to boost military cooperation between member states.

Britain would also be expected to contribute around £375million to the scheme - enough to rehire all of the 20,000 soldiers the Government sacked in its last defence spending review.

Last night critics branded the plans "scandalous" and said only a vote for Brexit in the upcoming referendum can guarantee the future of the 356-year-old British army.

One former servicewoman, who asked not to be named, told Express.co.uk the proposals would require the the military to change the centuries old Oath of Allegiance for new soldiers, because they would no longer be "bearing true allegiance" to the Queen.

She raged: "It'll be like ashes in the mouths of service personnel.”

The plans have been unveiled by bureaucrats who are preparing to revive proposals to draw up a legally binding "white book" which would vastly expand the military role of the EU.

Britain has by far the biggest and best equipped army in Europe and is to plough some £2.2bn into developing new weapons this year alone.

But under the new EU plans we could in future be blocked from researching new military technology which would benefit the British Army, instead being forced to plough money into projects for the wider benefit of the whole EU project.

Brussels bureaucrats are now calling for a "systematic and long-term policy framework" across Europe which would establish "a genuine harmonisation and coordination of operational and military requirements".

The bombshell proposal adds new laws should force member states to "fight off the temptation to add national specifications" to weapons development projects.

The dossier has been put together by a "group of personalities" including politicians and businessmen hand-picked by the EU to deliver its dream of becoming a full military power.

Establishing a standing EU army is seen by Brussels as one of the final steps in the creation of a United States of Europe, with the continent already hurtling towards full fiscal and political union.

Both current EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and former British prime minister Tony Blair, who wants to be his successor, have called for the bloc to have its own military.

The report is based on the presumption that the EU project will acquire its own army within decades and states that more cooperation between member states will be needed to "satisfy procurement needs".

It proposes an initial Preparatory Action (PA) plan, to be launched immediately with a budget of 100 million euros, which will pave the way for a fully-fledged EU-funded Defence Research Programme (EDRP) to begin in 2021.

The report states: "The PA and the EDRP should act as a catalyst for European cooperation in key capability areas, breaking down the barriers and overcoming the disincentives to cooperation that exist today.

"Effective coordination must ensure that the PA as well as the ensuing EDRP complements and supplements other research activities at the European, national or NATO levels, and does not lead to duplicated efforts at any level."

The authors argue setting up an EU defence project is of "critical importance for Europe's long-term security" and add that it needs a gargantuan 3.5 billion euro budget "in order to be credible and make a substantial difference".

He said: "When you sign up you pledge allegiance to her Majesty the Queen. Who are you going to swear allegiance to in the future, Jean-Claude Juncker?

"Are we going to be pulling the Union Jack off our uniforms and stitching on the EU flag? It's scandalous.

"During the Falklands war France was selling weapons to the Argentinians. If they try to take back the Falklands again will France let us use this EU army to defend them? I doubt it.

"There's only one people who can defend the British, and that's the British themselves."

Asked about the 13 senior military figures who signed the pro-EU letter, Mr Hookem blasted: "They are looking for an EU army and I wonder if any of these generals actually know this.

"We're not scaremongering, this is true, this is what's happening and we're seeing it.

"We're not safer, we've seen barbed wire going up all across Europe, ISIS are coming through Greece and getting into Europe quite easily with no checks whatsoever.

"The world's the most dangerous it's been for a hell of a long while and that's why we need our own army."

Britain is set to vote on whether or not to remain part of the EU in a referendum held on June 23.